Hey guys! Hope everyone has had a great week. My friend Evelyn turned 22 over the weekend and hosted a birthday brunch at The Stables of Como, a picturesque café that's hidden within the Como House compound. It's moulded after the concept of a stable, complete with fake grass and sketches of chickens on the walls. Forget grubby-looking cattle and dodgy barn houses - this stable is for the kind of people who want to experience the outdoors without really experiencing theoutdoors, if you know what I mean. The place was bright and airy, with oodles of light streaming in from the outdoor deck. Melbourne really turned up the charm last weekend, and now that we're back to gloomy days and icy weather, I'm itching for Spring more than ever.

Here's the radiant birthday girl!

`First up, Yan had the lyonnaise salad. This was surprisingly good. The crisp greens really cut through the saltiness of the cured duck, which was thinly sliced and laid over anchovies. Serving sizes here are quite modest; with most options being just right - it's not suffocatingly filling, that's for sure, and since we're at that time of the year where everyone's rushing to shed the winter weight in time for summer, I doubt any of us minded.

Felisa (above, right) and I went for the more classic brunch options. She had the smashed avo with mushrooms and feta on sourdough toast. Man. Talk about a real Aussie brunch staple - virtually every café serves a variation of this, and it's just one of those no-fail, feel-good options. Nothing revolutionary, I'll give you that, but satisfying nonetheless.

I'm a sucker for sweeter breakfast items, like the banana hotcakes with berries and pistachio praline. The crew at The Stables of Como gave the regular buttermilk hotcakes a pass, and instead made these like a banana bread, in hotcake form. The highlight of this was really the sticky-sweet pistachio praline, which was caramelised and broken into sugary bits. Yum.

As for the boys, they went for something meatier - here's the man-approved grilled wagyu rump.Together with a hot tomato salsa and sourdough crisps, this was juicy, pink and tender, with a hint of smokiness. The almost lattice-like bread crisps lent a bit of crunch and added to the texture as you chow down on this baby. Simply put, this was just melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

This café tends to crowd up past 11am on a weekend, and because they don't take reservations here, I'd recommend going earlier to secure a table. Otherwise, get your shades on and prepare for quite the wait outside!